How to Train Your Dragon director Dean DeBlois is already turning his attention to Part 2, and says he will use it as a way to “course correct” his previous effort.
DeBlois co-directed all three of the How to Train Your Dragon animated movies, and now he’s helmed the live-action remake that hit UK screens today, and US screens at the end of this week.
The filmmaker did some serious soul-searching over whether to adapt the material in a new medium, but ultimately decided that he “didn’t want somebody else’s version,” so directed the remake itself.
Earlier this year, Universal revealed that plans are afoot for a live-action How to Train Your Dragon 2, but according to DeBlois, his approach to that movie will depend on how audiences react to Part 1.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 remake is “malleable at the moment”
The live-action How to Train Your Dragon is very faithful to the original, aside from tweaks and changes when it comes to elements like mythology and back-story.
We asked if live-action How to Train Your Dragon 2 would follow the same path, or branch off in new directions. “It remains to be seen,” said DeBlois. “I’m writing it now, and I’m also waiting to see what the reception to this film is.
“If people like the faithfulness and the additions then that gives me some sense of direction. Dragon 2 tends to be – within the fandom – the favorite movie, so keeping the best of those bones, and also finding ways of course correcting on some of my own regrets, might be the way to go. But it’s malleable at the moment, and I’m curious to know how this movie will be received.”
DeBlois will find that out very soon, as live-action How to Train Your Dragon is out now in the UK, and arrives in US cinemas on June 13. For more animated action, here’s why 2024 was the year of the cartoon, plus our list of best animated movies ever.
